The role of Public Relations in the BGS company

Oana-Cristina Valeanu

The role of Public Relations in the BGS company

Theoretical concept
Public relations is a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial
relationships between organizations and their publics.
Implementing a successful Public Relations strategy is a very complicated process. It involves a
number of techniques used in other forms of marketing; which seems to confuse many of todays
up and coming business owners. Understanding its importance is the first step you need to take.
From there you can begin developing the strategies, or possibly hiring the right people; to get the
job done effectively.
At its core, public relations revolves around this universal truth: people act based upon their
perception of facts. By managing, controlling, or influencing people's perceptions, public
relations professionals hope to initiate a sequence of behaviors that will lead to the achievement
of an organization's objectives. When those in public relations successfully create, change, or
reinforce opinion through persuasion, their primary objective is accomplished.
The first step to understanding the importance of PR is to figure out exactly what is involved,
and sadly, there is never going to be an exact answer, but we can list the most commonly used
techniques: press releases, media alerts, press tours, trade shows, email marketing, social
networking.
If traditionally the public relations meant working with members of the news media to build a
favorable image by publicizing the organization or product through stories in print and broadcast
media.today the role of public relations is much broader and includes:

building awareness and a favorable image for a company or client within stories and articles
found in relevant media outlets;

closely monitoring numerous media channels for public comment about a company and its
products;

managing crises that threaten company or product image;

building goodwill among an organizations target market through community, philanthropic

and special programs and events;

Corporate social responsibility (CSR).

Because in the BGS Company the role of the Public Relations department is Corporate Social
Responsibility, I will develop a little this topic.
Corporate social responsibility, however one chooses to define the term, implies that a company
is responsible for its wider impact on society.
According to Kotler (2005), CSR is defined as a commitment to improve community well-being
through discretionary business practices and contribution of corporate resources.
Some marketers think that Corporate Social Responsibility isnt one of the Public Relations role,
but, in my opinion, CSR is the invention of PR, not just a role of it. If CSR wasnt the role and
of PR then it would have certain characteristics:

a commonly understood definition;

a common set of benchmarks;

established processes in place to achieve these benchmarks;

a system of internal auditing;

a system of external verification by accredited bodies.

CSR is basic to each organizations character, good, bad, or in between. Its character depends on
how well it can align its interests with those of consumers, audiences, and publics. For this
reason, CSR is not merely a communication challenge; it is a management planning and
performance challenge.
How organizations implement CSR depends on how they define it, whether as a moral obligation
and a rational approach to stakeholder satisfaction. It serves best when it is part of organizations
culture, planning, and management. It has implications for budgeting, return on investment, and
measures of effectiveness.

Case study
BGS (Bart Guard Services) is a security guard company from Romania, founded in 1994. The
activities of the BGS Group are focused on life. Therefore, the reason of the BGS Group
existence is based on providing services for life protection, care and saving. In its 17 years of
activity, the BGS Security Division has established itself on the Romanian market as the main
provider of private security services, dedicated to the protection of people and goods. BGS
Group is split into three divisions:

The BGS Security Divisions mission is to provide individuals and companies with
modern protection solutions, permanently adapted to the market needs, combining the
latest advances in technology with the physical and psychological performance of the
employees.

The BGS Medical Division managed to impose itself as a leader on the medical private
services market since 2003 and to assign the quality standards on the emergency medical
assistance area.

BGS disaster division.

Since 2009 the company implemented several campaigns that helped the society. The Public
Relations department was responsible for organizing these campaigns. Some of the campaigns
made by the company are: Joy with a toy, CROsinverS or Lend a helping hand.
Joy with a toy had its first edition in 2013 and it was the first concert where you could go with a
toy instead of ticket.
Campaign planning
Situation review: In Romania are 65,000 abandoned children, and their number increases
annually by 5,000. 65,000 children dont know what mother love and family protection means,
they are raised by the people in the orphanage. Children who dont know how to say Mom or
Dad, who lack parental love.

Selecting the target audience: People aged 18-45, male and female, who want to help those
children who dont enjoy the luxury of receiving gifts on Christmas Day and also children
between 5 and 18.
Setting goals:
1. The campaign aims to bring smiles on the faces of children who live in orphanages.
2. Through this campaign wed like to make people to help each other when they need, to
be united.
3. We aim to bring a large number of people at the concert.
4. Wed like to collect a large number of toys.
5. We intend to convince people that they can make joy with a toy.
Campaign budget: Our budget involves:

Renting costs;

Storage costs;

Toys transportation costs

We mention that the singers joined the cause and sang for free.
Strategy:
Because we know how important is a toy in a childs life, especially when it doesnt exists, we
decided to make the lives of the children, more beautiful, bringing them the joy of a toy.
Joy with a toy campaign was promoted on social media, on the official website of BGS
Company, on blogs and on newspapers (Libertatea, joined the cause).
The event, was a concert held in the first edition at Hard Rock Caf, on December 8th, and in the
second edition at Beraria H on December 14th.
For the first edition the message was: BGS and its partners invite you, Sunday, December 8th
2013, at Hard Rock Caf, where it will be held the first Romanian concert where the ticket will

be a toy. tefan Stan and some children from Next Star will provide a memorable evening, and
you, with a simple toy, you can bring joy to the soul and lights in the eyes of a child.
For the second edition the message was: Do you have a toy? There are children in Romania
who did not. You can make them joy with a toy and come on December 14th at Beraria H, at the
second edition of the charity concert Joy with a toy provided by BGS. The ticket is a toy.
Evaluation of the campaign:
At the first edition we raised approximately 2,500 toys which were offered as a gift to
abandoned children from 4 cities: Bucharest, Buzau, Giurgiu and Campulung Muscel.
The second edition was attended by 2,200 people and were raised more than 5,000 toys, which
reached the hearts of 2,000 children from 10 counties. Besides the donated toys we raised money
for two sick children. Participants contributed, doing three paintings. One of the paintings was
auctioned at the event and the money were put in the urn for the two sick children.

Bibliography
http://www.knowthis.com/public-relations/what-is-public-relations
http://www.worldwidelearn.com/business-career/article/the-importance-of-public-relations.html
http://www.prsa.org/aboutprsa/publicrelationsdefined/#.VU8cJI6qqkp
http://www.econ.upf.edu/~lemenestrel/IMG/pdf/frankental_2001_cc.pdf
http://www.instituteforpr.org/corporate-social-responsibility/